Japanese neurosurgical institute plans to open general hospital in Cambodia

A rendition of the large-scale general hospital planned by Kitahara Neurosurgical Institute to be built in Cambodia. (Image by Kitahara Neurosurgical Institute)

The Mainichi Daily News, Japan
December 14, 2010

Kitahara Neurosurgical Institute, one of Japan's leading neurosurgical medical centers, is planning to open a large-scale general hospital in Cambodia early next year, a first for a Japanese hospital, it has been learned.

Officials at the hospital are aiming to set up a facility with emergency care capabilities in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh in February. The facility will offer medical services to both Japanese citizens living in Cambodia and to citizens of Cambodia, where a wealthy class has begun to grow. Doctors at the facility will also work to improve the level of medical technology in the country.

Over the course of seven years, officials plan to build both a medical college and a large general hospital with around 1,000 hospital beds that will bring in patients from countries around Southeast Asia. Officials plan to make the hospital a private corporation that will receive its funding from private sector investors and hope to have the hospital listed on Cambodia's stock market.

The hospital will be equipped with advanced, Japanese-made medical equipment. "We want to export medical and environmental technologies to Southeast Asia," says Shigemi Kitahara, chair of the board of directors of Kitahara Neurosurgical Institute. With pressing competition from Germany in the export of medical equipment, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) has decided to lend its support to the project and is currently working out the specifics of how it will do so.

The hospital will not be the first Japanese medical facility in Asia -- a medical facility in Okayama Prefecture previously opened doctor's offices in Shanghai and other locations. However, with the decreasing population in Japan and medical costs already as high as the government will permit, running a hospital in Japan is becoming more financially difficult. Other leading hospitals in Tokyo have also begun considering expanding abroad, marking a change in direction for what has traditionally been a domestic-oriented industry.

In Cambodia, which is suffering from a severe shortage of doctors, it is possible to practice with a Japanese medical license. Furthermore, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plans to liberalize the use of medical services across different member nations, which is expected to allow hospitals to easily expand into other countries after establishing bases in Cambodia.

A spokesperson for International Design Japan, a consulting company that assists with the development of medical services abroad, says that in the last six months, the number of consultations with medical facilities about expanding overseas was three times greater than during the same period last year, with as many as 40 consultations on some days.

"Doctors are increasingly worried that because of drops in tax revenues, national and local governments may not be able to pay enough in insurance payments to keep hospitals going," says company representative Katsuhisa Kawasaki.

Meanwhile, a Tokyo dentist who plans to expand business to Cambodia says, "There is a serious problem of people refraining from going to the hospital in Japan because of the recession. The age when doctors could rely on a steady income is over."

Managing director Tsutomu Horikawa of Akita-based Sano Drug Group, which manages pharmacies and wholesale medical supplies, says, "We have to shift our focus from Japan, with its declining population, to overseas." Next spring, the group will begin offering a 24-hour translation service in Guangzhou, China, geared for Japanese patients.

Thanks to factors such as its economic growth, Asia is expected by countries around the world to experience a surge in demand for medical services, and competition among these countries to attract doctors is already beginning. If the number of doctors and hospitals in Japan giving up on Japan's medical system and shrinking market and moving overseas increases, some fear one result will be a hollowing out of Japan's medical services.